History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.20.6

v4.c63.20.6

It is said that torture is to be applied only in the case of those whose guilt is believed to be established *prima facie* (*āptadoṣaṁ karma kārayet*), that torture is not to be employed when the accused is guilty of a minor offence, is under age, old or diseased, is under the influence of intoxicants, or is a lunatic, or is overwhelmed by hunger or thirst or fatigue due to a journey, or has eaten to excess or is suffering from indigestion or is weak, nor is it to be employed in the case of a pregnant woman or a woman who was delivered of a child within a month; and in the case of other women only half the torture prescribed for males or only the asking of questions is to be employed. Learned brāhmaṇas and ascetics (when accused) are to be subjected to espionage only. Those who violate these rules or incite others to do so and those who are guilty of causing the death of an accused by torture are to be punished with the highest amercement. Four kinds of torture were employed in the case of complaints about wrongs viz. six daṇḍas, seven whippings, two kinds of suspension, and (fourthly) water-tube (i. e. injecting salt water in the nose from a tube).³³² In this chapter Kauṭ. states that one who charges an innocent man with being a thief or who conceals a thief is to be punished like a thief and that even one who is not a thief may for fear of torture admit that he is a thief, as Māṇḍavya did. Kauṭ. in IV.